While Mr Chiots and I were in Maine, we decided to swing by Eliot Coleman’s Four Season Farm. I’ve read all of Eliot’s books, and find his work to be very inspirational. When it comes to winter gardening he’s pretty much the best there is. I wanted to stop by particularly during this time of year because I knew his fall/winter planting would be in full swing.
It was a gray rainy day, but that didn’t dampen our spirits. We were happy to walk around in the drizzle. We even chatted with Eliot for a while and Mr Chiots spent quite a while talking to one of the workers. Of course his gardens were all brimming with beautiful fall/winter produce; radicchio, lettuce of all colors shapes and sizes, lots of spinach, brussels sprouts, carrots, kale and a variety of other things. Here’s a look around the Four Season Farm in early October.
Of course I took particular note of all of the crop protection techniques he describes in his newest book The Winter Harvest Handbook, which I’ve talked about a lot here. It was very interesting to see them in person. They were actually building one of the big cold houses while we were there.
I also picked up a great idea while there: writing the panting date on the plant label. This is such a great idea if you forget to write it down in your garden journal as I often seem to do. I usually write the planting date on the back of my seed packets, but I often forget to write them down elsewhere.
We really enjoyed our visit to Four Season Farm. I was quite happy to see that my fall spinach looked just as good as his. I also noticed a few weeds in his garden *gasp*.

And what is really impressive is to go into one of Elliot’s green houses on one of those dreary late Feb early March days. It is heavenly. One of my best friends’ property borders Elliot and of course they are friends. All of them purchased their land from the Nearings.

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but just recently moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine.